IPCC Report.pdf - Adam Curry

Managing the Risks: International Level and Integration across ScalesChapter 7Executive SummaryIncreasing global interconnectivity, population, and economic growth, and the mutual interdependence ofeconomic and ecological systems, can serve both to reduce vulnerability and to amplify disaster risks (highconfidence). Global development pathways are becoming a more important factor in the management ofvulnerability and disaster risk. [7.2.1]The international community has accumulated substantial experience in providing help for disasters andrisk management in the context of localized and short-term events associated with climate variability andextremes. Experience in disaster risk management includes both bottom-up and top-down approaches, but mostoften has developed from disasters considered first as local issues, then at the national level, and only at theinternational level where needs exceed national capacity, especially in terms of humanitarian assistance and capacitybuilding. [7.2.4]There are two main mechanisms at the international level that are purpose-built and dedicated to disasterrisk management and climate change adaptation. These are the United Nations International Strategy forDisaster Reduction (UNISDR) and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC),in particular in its adaptation components. This chapter focuses on these two bodies while recognizing thatthere are many others that have an international role to play. Page limitations require a selective approach and acomprehensive assessment of all relevant bodies is impractical. The UNISDR and the UNFCCC are very differentinstitutions with different mandates and scope and objectives, and with varying strengths and capacities (highconfidence). Up to the present this fact has made the integration of disaster risk management and climate changeadaptation difficult to achieve (medium confidence). [7.3] The evolution of disaster risk management has comefrom various directions: from the top down where legislation has required safe practice at operationallevels and from the local level up to the national and international levels. The evolution of climate changeadaptation has been driven primarily by the recognition of the global issue of anthropogenic climatechange (high confidence). [7.3]In addition to the UNISDR and the UNFCCC, other areas of international law and practice are being usedto address climate change adaptation and disaster risk management. The relationship between legalaspirations and obligations in these areas of international action and management is complex and neitheris well understood or agreed upon (high confidence). Other areas include international refugee law, which hasbeen invoked to deal with the displacement of people that might be in part attributed to climate change; humanrights law as used by citizens against states for climate change impacting on the enjoyment of human rights; and theattempts to expand existing legal doctrines such as the emerging ‘responsibility to protect’ doctrine to motive statesto act on climate change. Such attempts to use tools from other areas of international law to address climate changeadaptation and disaster risk reduction challenges have generally not been successful. [7.2.5]International action on disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation can be motivated both bynational interests and a concern for the common (global) public good. [7.2] The interdependence of the globaleconomy, the public good, and the transboundary nature of risk management, and the potential of regional risk pooling,can make international cooperation on disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation more economically efficientthan national or sub-national action alone. Notions of solidarity and equity motivate addressing disaster risk reductionand climate change adaptation at the international level in part because developing countries are more vulnerable tophysical disasters. [7.2]Closer integration at the international level of disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation, andthe mainstreaming of both into international development and development assistance, could fosterefficiency in the use of available and committed resources and capacity (high confidence). [7.4] Neitherdisaster risk reduction nor climate change adaptation is as well integrated as they could be into current developmentpolicies and practices. Both climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction might benefit from sharing of396